Furniture, and particularly furniture for use in public social settings, such as casinos, restaurants, convention halls, and the like, must be functional, sturdy and appealing to the eye. One important aspect of a piece of furniture is the support base, which should adequately support the piece of furniture. The base, particularly for elevated pieces of furniture such as barstools and tables, should be very stable and sturdy and should also be appealing to the eye as the base is typically seen by a viewer.
Such bases for elevated furniture undergo additional stresses than other types of furniture, such as lower chairs. This is particularly true when the base, nearest the piece of furniture, is narrower than the piece of furniture itself. The base undergoes various stresses including torsional stresses (rotation of furniture relative to the base), bending stresses (downward or upward forces applied to an edge of the piece of furniture), and shearing stresses (sliding of base along the floor). Each of these stresses are exaggerated in elevated furniture due to the leverage of the piece of furniture because of the taller base.